


ash and bone

by whimsicalMelancholy



Category: Skullgirls (Video Game)
Genre: Body Horror, that's it that's the whole fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-11-18
Packaged: 2021-03-09 19:00:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whimsicalMelancholy/pseuds/whimsicalMelancholy
Summary: the skull heart isn't making marie a god. it's making her a monster.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	ash and bone

**Author's Note:**

> i just wanted to write body horror with religious themes intertwined idk. enjoy

marie didn’t know what to expect when she took the heart.

the only thing she saw in the void of the skull heart’s eye sockets was a future that promised vengeance, death upon those that had hurt her and patricia, and those that sat by and watched it happen. it had promised her the power of a god, at the cost of her humanity. there was no way she would let the opportunity to see the medici mafia fall slip out of her wrathful grasp.

the skull heart was generous, in a way. marie no longer had a need for red blood or functioning guts when the skull heart was providing near-infinite power to her body, but she was still mortal, and there was only so much any mortal vessel could handle. her hubris, she knew, pushing her luck, would be her downfall. she knew she’d fall apart if she took any more than she was supposed to.

but she didn’t expect it to happen like this.

it wasn’t painful, at first. she attributed the small noises echoing throughout the catacombs as nothing more than rocks falling or a pile of bones moving.

it wasn’t long until the first definitive _snap_ , her screams complementary to the sickening crack of her femur breaking. she looked at double, disgusting monster they were, with eyes wide with a mixture of shock and anger and fear. it seemed to please them more than anything if the almost imperceptible widening of their permanent smile meant anything. marie wanted to wipe that sick, twisted smile off that damn creature’s face. she knew her time was running out. she couldn’t handle all of the power she was drawing from the heart, and the trinity was punishing her for her disobedience and greed.

they smiling down on her cruelly, she knew. they were watching through double’s eyes, red as the blood that ran through the medici’s veins. they were watching her be consumed, overwhelmed by the power of the cursed artifact they had offered her that damning day, becoming something terrible and powerful and more than human.

she knew the heart’s power--the trinity’s will--would soon burn her up, reduce her to ash and bone and burn that too. but goddesses be damned, she wished upon the heart for something and something she would get, no matter the cost.

her bones continued to break. sometimes instead of snapping with those awful crunches that echoed throughout the catacombs, they would pop out of their sockets instead, leaving an arm or a leg helplessly dangling from her fragile body. the worst ones were when bones broke so violently they shattered a limb in half entirely, leaving fragments sticking out of her body, leaving her wailing like she was a child, vulnerable and hurting, all over again.

the worst part was not the shattered edges like knives exposed to the cold air of the underground, nor the torn ligaments falling out, but the bright blue blood that dripped grossly down her limbs, a replacement for her once red blood. it reminded her she was no longer human. a strangled laugh forced itself out of her throat, bordering on hysterical.

she wasn’t becoming a god.

she was becoming a monster.

her skin was starting to peel off. it had already started to split under the effort she exerted throwing the building at the medici airship and sometimes it wouldn’t heal when her bones began to fuse back into place. the more strenuous tasks she performed, the more and more it began to tear, until patches of flesh began to fall off her body entirely. she looked as though the skull heart itself had flayed her open for the goddesses, judging her unworthy of the power granted to her. 

the torn skin exposed fractures and cracks where some bones didn’t quite finish healing, and she knew they wouldn’t. the heart would soon rip her to shreds.

they started to burn. 

sometimes, ever so slowly, blue flames would lick at exposed bone, sizzling and blackening it, flames dancing macabre. the power of the heart was burning her, dead and alive. she was the witch, sacrificed for sins she swears weren't real, but she would be burned to ashes regardless. 

all broken and burnt bones and torn skin and oozing blood, she looked like she crawled her way out from hell. her one consolation was knowing that she’d drag all the medicis down with her too when the trinity was done with her. she would suffer through as many jagged, disintegrating bone fragments jutting out of ripped and peeling and bleeding skin as she could if it meant taking them down with her. she wanted to look lorenzo medici in the eye as she tore him to shreds so he knew,

_if i go down, i drag you down with me. we shall rot in hell together._

**Author's Note:**

> yup. body horror  
> inspired by that one screenshot from squigly's story mode where marie throws a building at a medici airship and you can see her skin tearing  
> comments and kudos appreciated of course! ´˘`♡♡


End file.
